Yesterday IGN announced that Natsume will not localize the latest Harvest Moon title and that XSeed is taking over localization. Because Nastume owns the Harvest Moon name, the latest Harvest Moon will instead be called “Story of Seasons.” It doesn’t quite have the same nostalgic ring that Harvest Moon carries, but in some ways it’s more true to the Japanese name which is translated as “ranch story” or “farm story” depending on who you ask.

I’ll admit I was sad for a minute when I heard about the change. It definitely feels like the end of an era to me. But this announcement didn’t really come as a shock and I don’t think is quite as devastating as some of the twitterverse makes it out to be.

I picked up Rune Factory 4 last month—admittedly late to the party—and I was curious why XSeed had localized it rather than Natsume since they had done all the other Rune Factory games. I looked into it and found that XSeed was a subsidiary of Marvelous AQL, the publishers of Harvest Moon in Japan. It made sense that XSeed would localize it here. And I wondered how long it would be until XSeed took over the Harvest moon localization. That answers that question…

I find it curious that people are saddened by the “death” of Harvest Moon. Really it’s just a loss of the beloved name. Natsume didn’t make Harvest Moon. They translated it and probably made judgment calls in some matters of cultural insensitivity for example:

I’m actually guessing about the judgment calls. I don’t know whose idea it was to change the sprites. But the localization team’s job is to translate the game not just verbatim, but also to keep the spirit of it, which sometimes gets lost in its trek across the ocean. I think if the two companies can work more closely together it should mean better localizations hopefully in a more timely fashion. Pokémon set the bar kind of high on that one with its simultaneous worldwide release.

Playing Rune Factory 4 has set my mind at ease about XSeed’s capability. I think they can handle the translation of Harvest Moon Story of Seasons. I haven’t played RF4 in Japanese, so I can’t make an accurate judgement about the subtleties of the Japanese to English translation, but in English RF4 is lively and engaging. I find it delightful.

Spring 26

After having built a chicken coop I decided to place it. This turned out to be harder than I anticipated. I had way too many trees and had to chop a bunch down. Plus I didn’t notice the “dirt road” tiles that wouldn’t let me put things on top of it. And accurately lining up an item where you want it is not that easy either. But eventually I placed the coop just southeast of my barn and moved the fodder over left. It’s kind of cramped, but I’m sure that will change.

As usual I gifted Iroha a marguerite and she gave me more blueprints.

Silver Sickle

Silver Hoe

Silver Watering Can

Spring 27

Had the meeting with the Harvest Goddess this morning. I actually read about online play. I’m seriously thinking about trading a branch to my Japanese game since I have two or three of them in this one. Anyone want to wifi?

More marguerites for Iroha resulted in:

Iron Axe

Iron Hammer

I crafted the cow bell today. While it doesn’t call them in from outside like I hoped, it does make it so I don’t have to shove them nearly as much. I hate trying to push them all the way across the barn. My aching back!

I made a storage shed. It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. I still can’t carry much (I blame tools), but at least I got rid of the branches and black rocks and stuff cluttering up my bag.

Spring 28

Today was Emma’s birthday. I gave her herbs.

Nothing much was going on so I made some fish traps and monitored them. The exciting life of a broke farmer.

Spring 29

Today as I walked into Iroha’s house to deliver her daily flower I got a heart event! She wanted me to help her decide what ore to smith with. She rambled on a bit. I told her she wasn’t crazy and scored points with her. Hooray! The heart event music was kinda creepy though. After I gave her a flower she gave me more blueprints.

gold sickle

gold hoe

gold watering can

I got to give the harvest sprites birthday presents today because it didn’t rain in this game. Nothing great came from that endeavor.

Highlight of the day: I made a copper watering can. Now if only it wasn’t so late in the season and I had more stuff planted.

Spring 30

Today was the crop festival. I bombed at it of course: third place. But I participated to get points with villagers. And guess what. Iroha’s heart is purple today!

Spring 31

Flower giving day. I gave flowers. The only other exciting event was my purchase of a chicken. I named her Nugget.

Summer 1

Dunhill came in today and involved me in his town renovation plans. I have three tasks to perform for the first renovation:

Place 5 ball topiaries in the village

Place 10 street lights in the village

Place 3 wooden benches in the village

I made the topiaries and put them around town. Nothing happened after I placed the 5, so I assume I have to complete all three tasks before something happens.

I was also bombarded with mail. There’s new stuff in the shops. It tells me how much money I made from shipping last month: 65,203 gold. Sucks that I’m always broke after having that much money! Where did it go?

After giving Iroha a flower she gave me even more blueprints:

Ultra Axe

Ultra Hammer

conclusion

I’m now caught up with my Japanese game. This one is going much more smoothly. Partly because of my blueprint snafu on the other game, but also because I got screwed by the weather and couldn’t find a branch. It’s also kind of nice to have already gotten a heart event. I suppose my JP character should try to woo Neil. He’s such a sourpuss though.